Serendipity
by Maj-Clementine
Summary: Lit One Shot Can it an encounter be casual?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I just can't own anything! I'm too far away from hollywood!**

**A/N: I wrote this for a challenge almost a year ago, it got lost in my computer, and now I've come to its rescue to post it, enjoy!**

**To Include**:

- a lost wallet

- "You don't know how lovely you are" (from Coldplay, it doesn't have to be spoken, it could be a thought)

- Lily

**Not to Include**:

- for either Rory or Jess to have kids

- a meeting in a bookstore

**Rating**: PG

**Serendipity**

He was stuck _here_, of all places, Hartford airport, he was going back to New York after visiting his dad, Sasha and Lily in California for the holidays. It was awkward, going there and spending a couple of weeks there every year. Especially with Lily, she is like a little sister to him now, very much like him when he was little evading reality with her nose in a book. Of course, now on his way home, he was stranded for more than 12 hours in this airport, and he couldn't help it, thinking about _her_.

It had been 5 years, but she was still fresh in his mind. He couldn't believe that everything related to this town, this area, or if he stopped lying to himself, everything in the whole word reminded him of her. She was in his blood, mind and soul. As the one who changed him, the one who make him love, the one… just and simply that, the one. The one for him, the one… whatever, he was done overanalyzing it… he needed to stop lying to himself, the one that got away.

Now, five years later, he stood in an airport close to her home town, because it was where his uncle lived he told himself. His uncle, Luke, _her_ mom's boyfriend, soon to be husband, his informant. Luke was the link between them, Jess casually asked about her everytime they talked. Sometimes, there was no need to ask, the silence made Luke realise that he wanted to know, so he would tell him, _she is good…_ _graduating… she read your book and loved it… she is dating a Yale socialite, they broke up, or she just asked about you_. That last one stopped his heart, and he started rethinking the possibility of popping up in her life again. He decided against it, it would be too painfull, to hard, on him, on her, on Lorelai, Luke even, or both of them. He'd failed them, all of them, and now he is a man, he made a man out of himself, this holdlum, this rebel, this young deliquent cliché. But now he didn't know how to come back, so he is just passing by.

He didn't remember why he had a stop at Hartford airport, _the ticket was cheaper this way_, he lies to himself before muttering under his breath, "you don't have any problem affording first class tickets, so no, that it not the real reason, she is."

_You need this, to punish yourself for leaving her, or letting her go, or pushing her away, or what ever happened between you two. You are a glutton for punishment, for agony, to be close, but not there, to know about her, but not from her. You love to feel this complex and dual feeling of closeness and distance, love and hate, melancholy and numbness about her_.

While he reflected his life in the middle of the awful airport bar, he saw her, or someone who resembled her. Then again, every woman he saw looked like her. Every brunnette had her hair, but were never _her_. Every pair of blue eyes could be hers, but are not. So it was with this woman, who looked like her, sitting there, reading a book, sipping a big cup of coffee…

_Ok, it may be her, too many coincidences for not being her_, but maybe his mind was playing tricks again on him, as usual.

Once, he got off the subway in the city way before his stop and arrived late to work all to follow a young brunette that looked just like her, but when he caught her he realized his mistake and made a fool of himself, no to mention scared the hell out of that tourist.

But this time, today, here, it may be, but now it is too late, because when he dared to look up again she was already gone. She had left something on the table, a brown, feminine leather wallet. He hurried up to her table, grabbed it and with fear and expectance opened it to find that his instinct had been right. Sitting there, at the Harfrod airport, for half hour, reading, two tables away from him was no other than Rory Gilmore.

He needed to sit down, he felt his legs shaking, and an opportunity slipping. No wait, arising! He looked in her wallet finding her phone number, her address, a picture of her. Pictures… and she looked beautiful, grown up, but still young and alive. He thought to himself "You don't know how lovely you are, Rory Gilmore" and then cursed himself for sounding like a ColdPlay song.

Inside her forgotten wallet was her boarding pass, to London. He knew she was a foreing correspondant to the Hartford Courant; he had subscribed to it just to read her pieces. She was on her way to London, maybe to cover some big international news; the boarding pass said she had a couple of hours to kill before she had to get on the plane.

So he quickly got up from her table, picked up his things, paid his drink, and with a new strength went inside the airport to look for her. What he didn't realise was that while he was going out of the bar, Rory was coming back to look for her wallet and got a glimpse of him leaving the bar. They played cat and mouse, looking for each other in the big airport. She stalked, like a cat to his pray, inspecting him, noticing all his moves, while she worked up the courage to talk to him.

Finally feeling defeated he sat on one of the chairs as she slowly approached to him, and quietly said to his ear,

-"Are you gonna give that back, or do I have to use Luke to get it back?"

He hadn't seen her approach, but he sensed her. He always could after they first met, he could always sense her eyes on him. As usual he decided to ignore her comment, he really didn't want to start a fight with her tonight...

-"So London, huh, so Harry got a new girl or the Queen a new set of China?" he said picking up her boarding pass. He was teasing her, he knew she wasn't a social writer, but he wanted to see they old banter back.

-"Actually…" she said picking up the cue, "William learned how to drive and we are doing a big piece out of it! How about you, Writing more about books? Do you really need to keep idolizing Hemingway, or are you past that phase?"

-"Never" he answered, "so are you reading anything good lately?"

They were off… for two hours, discussing books, music, Stars Hollows, Luke and Lorelai, all safe subjects until they heard her flight being called...

and now he was desparate he didn't want to let her go, and he sensed she didn't want to go, or not like this, he wanted to tell her, He loved her, he still does. So she got up, and he grabbed her hand and said:

- "Don't go, you can take a later plane, I still have a couple of hours left we can talk some more."

-"No, Jess, I'm sorry, but being able to talk books and music doesn't solve anything, maybe next time we can have the guts to open up. If destiny is in our side we'll get another chance."

With those words and a sad look on her eyes, she boarded her plane and left him, like he had done a couple of times in their tumultous past. When she was out of sight, he whispered,

-"Maybe, maybe at Luke and Lorelai's wedding, I hope..." and he got up and went back to the bar, to drown his sorrow in a beer, or two...


	2. Chapter 2

**Because I got inspired by the reviews, thx for them by the way, here it is…**

**Chapter 2**

Weddings are supposed to be wonderful, romantic even great, but a winter wedding in Stars Hollow, well that was something different, especially if it was Lorelai's wedding, with no other than Luke as the groom. It was spectacular to say the least. It was an almost Christmas wedding and everybody in Stars Hollow was invited, even the closest towns were invited, Lorelai wanted it to be big, and beautiful, but still romantic and intimate with all the people she loved, including her parents, even if she didn't want to admit it, it was important for her to be given away by her father, and count on her mother to be one of the bridesmaids.

Her dress was beautiful, simple but stylish, a Lorelai you might say. Well in fact she design it herself, with the bridesmaids dresses, Rory, Sookie and her mum. Dressed in the same color, blue but in different designs, according to their ages and figures. Luke was in a dark grey suit with a blue tie and white shirt. Handsome and formal but not uncomfortable. And the best man was yet to arrive.

Lorelai broke the news to Rory slowly at her bachelorette party:

-"You know, Rory, Luke's best man, right?"

-"Not really, who is it?" she said surprise how her mother could bring that up in the middle of a strip club.

-"Well, honey, Jess is coming to the wedding, and he is Luke's best man." She said trailing of, expecting her to storm of…

-"Mmm. Ok, that is a good thing, I knew he was coming, mum, I run into him, at the airport at my last trip to London," she said casually

-"You did what?" said her mother surprised "you never mentioned it,"

-"Well it wasn't worth to, she said, and let's drop it and go back to the show" she changed the subject in not a really subtly way.

Rory was surveying all the details at the inn while her mum was getting dress and Sookie was giving the last touches to the food. So when he arrived, they couldn't take their eyes of each other.

Jess was mesmerized on her looks, she looked beautiful, innocent and sexy, a deadly combination for him, he remembered how he fall for her, because she was beautiful, naive and sexy without even knowing it and that was according to him, the best combo ever, throw in there a school uniform and love for books and he was gone. Her dress was strapless and knee long, it accentued her body where it had to be, and insinuated how sexy she was. The color brought up her eyes and she had her hair down in curls with some silver earrings and nothing else. Simple and elegant, but Jess thought very very sensual.

Rory was checking him out, in the open, she felt her face turn red of her bluntness, but she couldn't help it, he was gorgeous. Wearing the same suit as Luke but with the tie a little loose. He looked great, same "it took me three hours and lots of gel to make it look like a I just got up" hair and sexy smirk.

When both finally caught the other staring, smiled timidly as they approached each other:

-"Hey, you look good," he said, reliving a really good memory of a similar wedding many years ago

-"You do to," she said, catching the inside joke and blushing at the thought of repeating the impulse.

-"So, big day, huh?" he said trying to break the ice

-"Yeah, mum is so excited!"

-"I bet she is, this is what we all have been expecting for years,"

-"Yeah, definitely, so how are you?"

-"Good, same old, same old, and you? Any big trips and stories?"

-"Yeah, I love it, is so wonderful to see the world, Stars Hollow seems so small now, I understand how you felt when you first came here from the city."

And before he got the chance to say anything else, they heard a loud cry for help from Michel, and she was of.

The wedding went smoothly, everything was perfect as planned. The ceremony was lovely, and made everybody cry, including Jess, which really surprised Rory when he caught him with teary eyes. She smiled at him, and he smiled back, a truly, real, beautiful, sincere smile.

The reception was wonderful, the food excellent as usual, Sookie cooked for thousands even thought they were not more than 300 people at the Dragon Fly inn, where the reception was taking place.

Lane's Band played, everybody danced, well almost everybody, Rory couldn't convinced Jess to dance with her, he promised, some other time. Beside that they didn't spend too much time with each other. Rory was kept away form him by almost everybody who wanted to talk to her, the daughter of the bride. But they kept glancing at each other all night long. Glances full of desire and promise.

That is why she wasn't surprise to find him at the bridge at the end of the night when everybody was gone and Luke and Lorelai gone to their Honeymoon.

She came bearing cake and he was grateful. They share it in silence. Not an awkward silence but a comfortable one.

He was the first to break it:

-"So are we gonna talk books or are we gonna try and solve something?"

-"Do you think we can?"

-"We can what?"

-"Solve something?"

-"it depends…"

-"On what?"

-"If we wanna"

-"Do you?" she asked, hesitantly

-"Yeah, "he said regretful

-"Why?" she asked

-"Because you meant, you mean actually, a lot to me, Rory, as a friend, or much more, I don't know, I'm not good at opening up and talking, you know that, but well, maybe it can help, if I try, I know I failed a lot, but it was not all my doing you know?"

-"Yeah, I know, but I don't know you anymore, and you don't know me either, or we do know each other, if our essence is the same, I just don't know what there is to solve or save, or what I want from you, from this," she babbled signaling the gap between them, "cause, we can get a long just fine talking books if we meet at a thanksgiving dinner cause we are family now, you know? But is that enough for us? We used to have so much more, and not so much at the same time, it was hard, and confusing, and new and wonderful, cause we had skin, oh yeah we did, and we had chemistry and a connection, and similar interest, but right now, I don't know what we have," she trailed of…

-"Wow! Breathe, Rory," he said " I don't know either but maybe we can rebuild, our connection, our friendship and work from there to get to know each other again, I don't wanna loose you again you know?" he said almost in a whisper

-"Yeah, me either, so let's agree to be civil and work from here, ok?"

-"Ok" he agreed "it's getting late, are you staying at you place? I mean you mums place or where are you living now?" he wondered how little they knew about each other.

-" I have an apartment on Peach" she said "and you? You are staying at the inn or at Luke's?" she wondered

-"At the diner, yeah," he said getting up and helping her to get up.

So they walked together to her place, slowly around the quiet street of Stars Hollow, both not talking and lost in thoughts.

When they arrived at her place, she asked him, how long was he staying and he said he was living as soon as he got up the next day and she invited him to have breakfast at Luke's before he left, he agreed, "I was going to have breakfast there either way, so meet you there tomorrow, Good Night Ror" and with that he left her standing there, wondering what was all that, and where they were going next with this?


End file.
